In the dragon lair covered with a layer of ice crystals, a pair of platinum dragon eyes slowly opened.
Garon's body moved slightly. He wanted to spread his dragon wings to stretch his muscles, but the somewhat cramped lair caused his wings to hit the edge of the wall, leaving clear scratches.
"It should be safe now."
He calculated the time; he had been asleep for nearly two weeks.
Now, his stomach was empty, giving off waves of hunger.
Garon grabbed the battered armor and rusted iron sword, and with the surging water, quickly left the riverbed lair. Reemerging under the skies of the far northern ice plains, he was greeted by bright, warm sunlight, which gilded the snowy world in a layer of gold.
Garon looked up at the sky and saw a silent, uncommunicative sun quietly radiating light and warmth, nourishing all things.
The golden sunlight fell on Garon's dragon scales, momentarily giving him a golden shimmer, as if he had transformed from a white dragon into a gold one.
"While I was asleep, the polar night passed."
The polar day had arrived, and if no severe weather intervened, sunlight would cover the northern ice plains for half a year.
During this half-year, many areas' ice and snow would melt, revealing the yellow-brown permafrost below. Some hardy plants, having survived the polar night, would also bloom with life.
After watching the polar day scenery for a while, Garon flapped his wings, his body turning into a straight white line, racing toward the ice cliff territory.
It wasn't long before he returned to the ice cliff territory.
After tossing the two ancient relics he initially found into the ice cliff lair, Garon flew out of the lair amid the still howling cold wind, heading straight for an area in the northwestern corner of the territory.
Minutes later, a herd of large mammoths appeared in Garon's view.
These large beasts were leisurely wandering in groups.
They resembled elephants but were even more robust and shook the ground when they moved in groups. They were covered in a thick layer of fur, with snow-white, spear-like mammoth tusks, which were the white dragon lady's trophy tusks.
However, unlike their size, this group of mammoths was quite timid.
Or rather, they were very timid when encountering a dragon.
As soon as Garon appeared, his dragon's aura spread, and the mammoths, whose weight was not much less than his, immediately went limp, trembling under the supernatural mental intimidation of the dragon's presence, without even trying to run.
So big yet so timid...
Garon shook his head, swooped low, and powerfully grabbed an adult mammoth before quickly rising again.
The panicked mammoth managed to break free from the dragon's intimidation and flailed wildly in mid-air.
Garon looked down and exhaled a breath of frosty dragon breath, easily freezing the large beast into an ice pop.
Not a magical creature, nor a fierce species, these guys had pitifully low elemental resistance. They couldn't last even a second and died instantly.
After bringing the food back to the lair, Garon caught a glimpse of a pile of spell scrolls.
He suddenly remembered that among his spell scrolls was a very classic Fireball spell.
Since becoming a dragon, Garon had never eaten cooked food. The thought of the savory scent of cooked meat made him swallow his saliva.
"Isn't it a bit extravagant to use a Fireball spell scroll to cook meat?"
Garon picked up the Fireball scroll.
Unlike his long-held belief, the Fireball spell was not a low-level spell but a third-tier spell.
One more tier and it would advance to a mid-tier spell.
In terms of power alone, some fourth-tier spells couldn't even compare to Fireball.
"I've never used a spell scroll before; I need to practice for future use of the Savage Vortex."
Garon found a suitable reason, flicked his claw, and immediately unrolled the spell scroll.
Whoosh!
A rich fiery red elemental light emerged from the scroll, which spontaneously ignited.
Garon focused his attention and poured his mental energy into it.
The use of spell scrolls was explained in the principles of casting:
One way was to simply tear it open and throw it at an enemy, like tossing a hand grenade - the crudest method.
This was easy to use, even by those with no knowledge of magic, though it risked harming allies.
The second way was to tear it open and use mental energy to guide the magic sealed within the scroll to lock onto a target and complete the casting, using only a bit of one's mental energy, with the scroll providing all the magic.
This method was highly precise and less likely to go wrong, but only casters could use it this way; it wasn't for everyone.
Garon guided the Fireball magic, locking onto the nearby mammoth
's body.
The flame instantly contracted into a pea-sized little fireball, seemingly harmless and even somewhat cute, but Garon could clearly sense the highly compressed energy of fire elements within it.
Under Garon's control, the little fireball, with a swoosh and a whistling sound, hit the mammoth's carcass.
Boom!
The air violently shook, and a heat wave surged forward.
The blazing, brilliant flames burned, covering a radius of about seven meters, engulfing the entire mammoth in fire.
Garon blinked, secretly amazed by the classic spell's effect.
"Too bad I don't have knowledge of energy sculpting spells."
He recalled the spell brilliance he had seen a week ago and longed for it.
The spreading flames gradually extinguished without fuel, but the fire ignited on the mammoth's fur, which was a good combustible, continued to burn.
Soon, the rich aroma of cooked meat wafted through the air, making Garon's stomach rumble.
After waiting a while, as the aroma of mammoth meat filled the air, Garon blew out the flames and started eating eagerly.
Because there were no spices and the cooking was uncontrolled, the mammoth meat wasn't delicious, but since it had been so long since he had eaten cooked food, Garon was still satisfied.
Cooked food and raw food each had their appeal to a dragon's palate—one aromatic and the other supremely fresh; he could enjoy both.
Not long after eating a whole mammoth, Garon licked his lips, still craving more.
He caught another mammoth, planning to eat it frozen this time for a change of flavor.
However, just as Garon returned to the lair and before he started eating, an excited loud call, mixed with the wind, reached Garon's ears.
"Master, Ugga has a great treasure to offer you!"
"You will definitely like it!"
A great treasure?
Could it be the magical gemstone I had asked for earlier... Garon thought.
Stop guessing, stop guessing, the protagonist isn't raising children; he's still just a two-year-old fledgling dragon himself.